The Watershed Project 2016-17 Annual Report Committed to inspiring Bay Area communities to understand, appreciate and protect local watersheds.

Dear Friends, gardens, bioswales, and habitat gardens, linking the urban green space together. This spring was particu- Thank you for helping to make 2016-17 an exciting larly vibrant after the rains, and our Second Saturday year for The Watershed Project! As we celebrate our volunteers experienced the explosion of growth - both 20th year of watershed leadership, I am inspired by of the invasives and natives! - during the spring and how the phrase “it takes a village” applies to restoring into the warm summer months. and protecting our natural world. Our accomplish- ments are only possible with the strength and dedica- In our constant effort to make our communities more tion of our fellow members of the watershed move- resilient to climate change, this year we undertook sev- ment, always striving to build a more sustainable and eral community planning efforts to make sure our cit- resilient Bay Area. ies are greener and that integrated water management is considered as we plan for new roads, waterfront This past year, we are proud to have reached more zoning, install new green infrastructure and expand Bay Area students than ever before. The curiosity and the urban canopy. engagement of the over 1,600 students, including over 1,000 who came on field trips to explore natural While this year had challenges, many small moments, spaces, makes me confident in the future of the Bay from a child’s curiosity examining a bug, to the impact ecosystems. of dedicated volunteers to the resiliency of the natural world, bring me optimism about the future. As this In just one year, our programming has mobilized over year comes to a close, I eagerly look forward to the 3,000 volunteers to join together with their neighbor- next. More LID projects are breaking ground and hoods, families, co-workers to make our Bay Area wa- over 1,500 new students will have the opportunity to tersheds cleaner, healthier, and stronger. Through large explore the natural world and engage in STEM educa- events such as Coastal Cleanup Day and Earth Day to tion outdoors. smaller crews hauling on boots to monitor urban creek water quality and oyster populations, our dedicated Join us as we celebrate our 20th year anniversary and volunteers show me the power we have when we come wish as well for the next 20 years to come! together with a common purpose. Our mission of inspiring a watershed movement to understand, appre- ciate, and protect our local watersheds is being carried out everyday by our volunteers.

If you have not come down to the Richmond Gre- enway in a while, please do! We recently completed our 11th “bead on the necklace” on the Greenway, Juliana Gonzalez with low impact design (LID) projects including rain Executive Director

1 The Watershed Project The Watershed Project Annual Report 2016-17

Board of Directors Jane Gire, Chair Contents Scott Kocino, Treasurer Sigrid Mueller, Secretary Watershed Education Annelise Moore Developing the next generation of watershed stewards with nature Eric Hyman 3 based STEM education programs. Patty Liao Greening Urban Watersheds Staff Restoring natural function to the urban landscape by building green Juliana Gonzalez 5 infrastructure with volunteers of all ages. Martha Berthelsen Helen Fitanides Wild Shorelines Paula White Engaging the community and building shoreline resiliency with the Phaela Peck 7 restoration of oyster habitat in the San Francsico Bay. Kat Sawyer Jesse Brown Healthy Watersheds Lauren Woodfill Preventing pollution from entering the watershed through marine Sharon Gibbons 9 debris education, trash cleanups, and insprining behavioral change. Nikki Muench Alto Ayhan Green Careers Joseph Clerici Providing local youth with experience and professional development in Carol DiBenedetto 11 the environmental field. Michelle Ochoa Jeanine Strickland Community Planning Fosting a watershed movement with expert knowledge and Green Collar Corps 13 collaboration. Sara Gurdian Luis Martinez Emanuel Peterson Brian Severino

2016 Annual Report 2 3 The Watershed Project Wild! Oysters is a great way to take students out of the city to areas that most have never been to before. Most of my students have never really considered oysters before and come out of the project with a greater appreciation for the natural systems that are nearby. Many students name this project the highlight of the year in environmental science.

—Andra Kimball Environmental Science teacher, Mission High School

Watershed Education The education team’s goal is to develop the next generation of watershed stewards. We strive to connect local kids and communities to watersheds, nature and stewardship opportunities. Our programs are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards and take into account current best practices in science and environmental education and we are committed to providing quality STEM experiences for all students. In 2016-2017, we concentrated on curriculum development, improving our programs and connections to science standards, while fore fronting access to nature and cultural relevancy. Through actual hands-on engagement in local parks and on-going projects, we believe that students can be inspired to become leaders in watershed stewardship.

1,606 1,088 64 students served students on field trips classes served

12 63% Bay Area field free and reduced trip sites lunch students

2016 Annual Report 4 Overall, this was a life changing experience because we hadn’t cleaned up the streets before which opened our eyes to see how much we could help the environment. Cleaning up the streets was our way to give back to the planet after all the planet and environment has done for us.

—Jenn Sosa, Carlos Martinez and Alexa Vega Leadership Public School-Richmond students

Healthy Watersheds Our Healthy Watersheds program focuses on preventing pollution from entering the watershed through marine debris education, trash cleanups, and inspiring behavioral change. We help kids and adults understand that their ordinary, everyday decisions can improve the health of our watersheds, the and the entire Pacific Ocean. Through volunteer and student driven programs, we educate and empower residents to be more mindful of their impacts on water quality by involving them directly in cleanups. This year, we continued the work of community empowerment through the successful Adopt-a- Block neighborhood beautification campaign in North Richmond. We also began a new collaboration between a network of organizations region-wide to expand creek monitoring and develop citizen science programs.

17,682 2,567 lbs trash removed from volunteers participating in creeks/shorelines cleanups

180 15,000 service hours provided lbs diverted from land- to the community by fills through composting block ambassadors and recycling

15 The Watershed Project 2016 Annual Report 16 71 The Watershed Project It was one thing to learn from a textbook, but learning from being out in the field and physically going through the process gave me a sense of what I could possibly being doing as a career. I immediately realized that working towards benefitting the environment and being surrounded by nature is what I want to pursue in a higher education and in a career.

—Carissa Ortega former Wild Oysters student

Wild Shorelines

Our Wild Shorelines program aims to help people appreciate the rich potential for healthy underwater habitats in the Bay and along its shoreline. Oysters provide key ecosystem services along our shorelines by building reefs, thereby creating habitat that shelters ocean life and increases ecosystem diversity. These reefs also provide a buffer for our shorelines, reducing wave energy before it reaches land. This year we continued to monitor our community-built oyster reef at Point Pinole, and discovered that approximately 96% of oysters died due to lowered salinity in the bay during the wet winter. We will continue to monitor them, and hope to see a recovery in the coming years.

50+ 150 volunteers monitoring volunteer citizen oysters science hours

1,000 100 square feet of oyster community built oyster substrate reef balls

2016 Annual Report 8 It’s so good to see the new growth. Thank you for givus us a great opportunity to plant so many trees at a time! We will go back and watch our trees in the future!

—Robin Yuan Student, Univeristy of California Berkeley

Greening Urban Watersheds Our Greening Urban Watersheds program restores natural function to the urban landscape by building green infrastructure with volunteers of all ages. We help communities plan and implement strategies such as bioswales, rain gardens and low-impact design projects that protect local watersheds from the pollution generated by modern life. These collaborative efforts help ensure the free flow of local creeks, reduce urban runoff, promote the spread of native plants and improve the natural beauty and biodiversity of our urban watersheds.

479 250 program volunteers trees planted

service118 learning 1,387 students volunteer hours

9 The Watershed Project 2016 Annual Report 10 111 The Watershed Project TWP has definitely encouraged my career direction. I would like to pursue something along the lines of public health or urban planning. This job offers me a lot of opportunity not only for career guidance but it also allows me to grow as a person and develop all types of skills that I will use in the real world.

—Sara Gurdian Green Collar Corps , The Watershed Project

Green Careers Our Green Careers program builds the next generation of watershed stewards by providing local youth with experience and professional development in the environmental field. Through our Green Collar Corps and Internship programs, we give students and young professionals hands-on work experience and training in the fields of non-profits management and operations, environmental education, marketing and communications, program management and restoration.

16 100 high school and college hours of training students interns

779 1,416 intern hours GCC hours

2016 Annual Report 12 Think about the power of combining that flexibility, artistry, craftsmanship, humility, hands-on learning and fluid collaboration together in harmony with the forces of nature. Both at the macro scale, like adapting to climate change, and the micro scale, like stabilizing a creek bank with bioengineering.

—Jeanine Strickland Landscape Architect, The Watershed Project collaborator

Community Planning We frequently collaborate with community groups, municipalities, students, and volunteers to create visioning plans for a resilient and more sustainable Bay Area. Offering expertise in water management, green infrastructure, and pollution prevention, our planning projects are shaping the future of our cities, shorelines, and green spaces. Over the past year, we facilitated community planning efforts to make them more resilient to climate change in the communities of El Sobrante, North Richmond, and Richmond as well as participating in community planning efforts to place Green Infrastructure in Contra Costa County.

10 $100,000 community stewardship grants distributed to grants community groups

500 3 active participants in regional planning planning exercises exercises

13 The Watershed Project 2016 Annual Report 14 Financial Report July 2016 - June 2017

Rainmarkers Linda Abe Michelle Edwards Eric Hyman Janet Johnson Briggs Nisbet Lori O’Brien Timothy O’Shea Louise Pellerin Greg Wentworth Aaron Willems

Donors Bruce & Sandra Beyaert Diane Ichiyasu Betsy Raymond Alto Deniz Ayhan Guy Baldwin Expenses: $619,732 Revenue: $627,021 Mary Barnsdale Donald Bastin Michelle Katz Ralph Warner Hog Island Oyster Company dation Holger Berthelsen Scott Kocino Patricia Wegner Kaiser Permanente Trust for Public Land Martha Berthelsen Jen Krill Lloyd White Mechanics Bank Susan Bolender Maureen Lahiff Paula White Patagonia Community Partners Brian Bowes Patty Liao Gregory Wingren Tradewinds Sailing Albany Unified School District Jesse Brown Marsha Lowry Lauren Woodfill Wareham Development Building Blocks for Kids Col- Elizabeth Brusati Edward & Carol Lyke Vince Yorton Waterbar laborative Darlene Ceremello Erin McCluskey California Urban Streams Nicholas Christ Bertha McKinley Schools Foundations & Partnership Courtney Clarkson Annelise Moore Antioch High School Goverment Citizens for a Greener El Karen Cleek Sigrid Mueller Athenian School BayKeeper Sobrante Joseph Clerici Nicole Muench Bayview Elementary Cal Fire Contra Costa Watershed Forum Pamela Conard Grant Nisbet Bentley School City of Albany EarthTeam Michal Crawford-Zimring Michelle Ochoa Cox Academy City of San Pablo East Bay Regional Park District Carol DiBenedetto Bruce Orr Downer Elementary City of Richmond Education Outside Sheryl Drinkwater Raphaela Peck Escuela Bilingue Clif Family Foundation El Cerrito Garden Club Frances Dupont Antonio Piccagli Fairmont Elementary CA Coastal Commission Friends of Kenneth Epley Christopher Randle George Washington High School Coastal Conservancy Friends of Natalia Espinel Rebecca Robinson Horizons School for Independent Contra Costa County Friends of the Richmond Lou & Sylvia Falcon Eunice Santos Home Study Dean & Margaret Lesher Greenway Beverly Farr Cecile Scandone Kensington Elementary Foundation Groundwork Richmond Teresa Ferrari John Schaaf Lake Elementary East Bay Community Foun- Neighborhood House of North Helen Fitanides Susan Schwartz Mission High School dation Richmond Zoe Francesca Gary Scott Oakland Technical High School East Bay Municipal Utilities Oakland Unified School District Femke & Matt Freiberg Birute Skurdenis Oceanview Elementary District Office of Supervisor John Gioa Kathleen Ann Geritz Elizabeth Sojourner Richmond High School J. Vance Huckins Fund of Pogo Park Sharon Gibbons John Steere Salesian High School Tides Foundation San Francisco Estuary Institute Calder Gillam June Stephens Shu Ren International School National Fish & Wildlife San Francisco Unified School Jane Gire Margaret Stone St. Cornelius Catholic School National Oceanic & At- District Bonnie Glover Jeanine Strickland St. Patrick-St. Vincent High mosspheric Adminstriation San Pablo-Wildcat Watershed Juliana Gonzalez Marc Sugiyama School Pisces Foundation Council C Sebastian Gonzalez Dixon Catherine Tait St. Paul School Raymond Family Foundation SPAWNERS Jef Hall Alva Tamura University of California, San Francisco Estuary Part- Urban Tilth Michael Hanemann Tracey Thompson Berkeley nership West Contra Costa Unified Alexander Hartnett Kelsey Trippany San Francisco Foundation School District Derek Hitchcock Samuel Valeriano Business San Francisco Public Utilities Marianne Hook Ann Van Steenberg California Canoe & Kayak Commission Elaine & Phred Jackson Judith Ward El Cerrito Garden Club San Pablo Community Foun-

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